The concluding event in the first phase of “A New Italian Political Cinema?” will be a conference that will take place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester, M1 5BY:  http://www.anthonyburgess.org/   The venue is in Manchester city centre and is five minutes’ walk from Manchester Oxford Road train station.

The event will begin on the evening of Friday, January 27th and will continue all day on the 28th.   The conference programme is published below:  Sessions 1, 2 and 4 will be in Italian.  Session 3 will be in English.  Conference papers will be of approximately 15 minutes’ duration.

DAY ONE:      Friday, January 27^th,  19.30–21.30

19.30–19.45:  Introduction (in English):  William Hope (University of Salford, GB): Political Cinema: Cinematic Mainstreams and Peripheries 

SESSIONE 1:  19.45–21.05.    Girare nelle zone rosse:  azione popolare e repressione di Stato  (in italiano)

Silvana Serra (Società Dante Alighieri, Manchester e iscritta Cgil):  Verità filmiche su violenza di Stato e mistificazione della realtà nella storia recente d’Italia: Draquila di Sabina Guzzanti. 

Monica Jansen  (Università di Utrecht / Università di Anversa):  Trauma o utopia?  Repressione e rivolta nelle visualizzazioni del G8 a Genova.

Filippo Ticozzi  (regista):  Video-appunti guatemaltechi.

Proiezione di una sequenza del film di Filippo Ticozzi, Lettere dal Guatemala.

Domande / dibattito 

21.05:    Rinfresco

_____________________________________________________

DAY TWO:      Saturday,  January 28^th,   11.30–17.20

SESSIONE 2:    11.30–13.00.    Sguardi diversi sul dramma della migrazione  (in italiano)

11.30–11.50:   Introduzione generale:  William Hope (Università di Salford, GB):  Una panoramica degli eventi realizzati nel progetto Un nuovo cinema politico italiano?        Introduzione alla sessione:  Federica Mazzara (University College, Londra): L’accento mancato: il cinema della migrazione in Italia.

Patrizia Muscogiuri  (Università di Salford): Terraferma, tra plauso e contestazioni: Distorsioni mediatiche, deformazioni linguistiche e la clandestinità delle politiche italiane sull’immigrazione.

Vito Zagarrio (Università Roma Tre):  Lo sguardo della migrazione: la messa in scena del cinema italiano che rappresenta l’immigrazione.

Carlo Michele Schirinzi  (regista):  Spostamenti tellurici: un calcio alla democrazia cinematografica.

Proiezione del cortometraggio di Carlo Michele Schirinzi,  Notturno stenopeico. 

Domande / dibattito

13.00–14.00:        Pranzo

_____________________________________________________

SESSION 3:    14.00–15.20.      Filming Modern Italian Society: Migration and Integration (in English)

Introduction: William Hope (University of Salford)   

Pauline Small  (Queen Mary, University of London): 21^st Century Boat People

Guido Bonsaver  (University of Oxford):  Immigration and the Politics of the Italian Film Industry

Luciana d’Arcangeli  (Flinders University, Adelaide): Making the Invisible Visible in Francesco Patierno’s Cose dell’altro mondo (2011) 

Questions / discussion

15.20–16.00:      Break   

_____________________________________________________

SESSIONE 4:     16.00–17.15.       Lavorare ai margini: il cinema e i lavoratori invisibili d’Italia  (in italiano)

Introduzione:    William Hope (Università di Salford, GB):  L’importanza della visibilita’ per le problematiche del lavoro in Italia:  i metalmeccanici della Ferrari come registi

Marco Paoli (Università di Liverpool):  Modernità liquida e identità nelle tragicommedie di Paolo Virzì

Áine O’Healy (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles):  Destinata ad assistere: la badante nel cinema contemporaneo

Domande / dibattito

17.15–17.20:     Concluding remarks

This event is free and open to the public, but there will be a guest list; anyone interested in attending as an observer is asked to contact the organizer, William Hope, who will register your name for the day(s) that you wish to attend (please specify the 27th and/or 28th):  W.Hope@salford.ac.uk    Unfortunately, it will not be possible to turn up on the day and attend the event without having registered in advance.

Although the workshop programme is full, with no further space for new speakers, places are still available to attend the workshop in an observational capacity. There will, however, be a formal guest list for the event and places are unlikely to be available on the day of the workshop. If you wish to attend the Cremona event as an observer, please contact William Hope (W.Hope@salford.ac.uk) and your name will be added to the guest list.

10.00-10.40:  Registration

10.40-10.50:  Introduction

William Hope (The University of Salford, GB.  Co-ordinator of the project A New Italian Political Cinema?):  Political Cinema: Screening the Effects of Capitalism

10.50-12.00:  THE STATE, INSTITUTIONAL OPPRESSION AND COUNTER-REACTION

Amanda Minervini (Brown University, Providence, USA; activist in the Popolo Viola movement): Enrico Deaglio and Beppe Cremagnani’s Uccidete la democrazia: Mathematical Obscenities and Statistical Resistance in Post-Constitutional Italy

Clodagh Brook (The University of Birmingham, GB): Impegno, Protest, and the Catholic Church in Italy

Federico Giordano (The University of Udine): From the ‘Shroud’ to the ‘Caimano’. The Somatic Polymorphism of Silvio Berlusconi in Italian Cinema.

Mauro Sassi (McGill University, Montreal, Canada): Francesca Comencini’s Carlo Giuliani, ragazzo – A Counterhegemonic Documentary

12.00-12.30:  Refreshments

12.30-1.30:    REPRESENTATIONS OF ITALY’S SOCIO-POLITICAL PAST

Introduction:  Luciana d’Arcangeli (Flinders University, Adelaide): Why does Italian cinema still need to turn to the past?

Pauline Small (Queen Mary, London GB): Post-political Cinema: Amelio, Giordana, Garrone 

Flavia Brizio-Skov (University of Tennessee): A New Italian Political Cinema: Is There One? Daniele Luchetti’s Mio fratello è figlio unico          

Ilaria Serra  (Florida Atlantic University, USA): Cinema and polis in the films of Dennis Dellai

1.30-2.30:  Lunch

2.30-4.00:  MIGRATION AND MARGINALIZATION ON SCREEN

Patrizia Cammarata  (Partito di Alternativa Comunista):  The Migrant Experience in Contemporary Italy

Michela Ardizzoni  (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA): New Narratives of the Other: Arabs and Muslims in Italian Cinema                                       

Sabine Schrader (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Migration and Nostalgia in Giorgio Diritti’s Il vento fa il suo giro                                   

Yasmina Khamal  (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium): Alex Infascelli’s Almost Blue : The noir metropolis, marginal identities and socially committed cinema                                    

Sally Hill  (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand):  Representing Disability in 21^st Century Italian Cinema                                                     

4.00-4.30:  Refreshments

4.30-6.10:  FILMIC REPRESENTATIONS OF LABOUR RELATIONS AND THE WORKPLACE

Fabiana Stefanoni  (Partito di Alternativa Comunista):  Workers, Trade Unions and Capital in 21^st Century Italy

Paolo Chirumbolo (Louisiana State University, USA): Ascanio Celestini’s Parole sante – the Call Centre Workers of Atesia 

Maria Elena D’Amelio  (SUNY Stony Brook, USA): The comedy of ‘precarious’ lifestyles in Paolo Virzì’s Tutta la vita davanti

Marco Paoli (The University of Liverpool, UK): Paolo Virzì’s Baci e abbracci: Class Conflict and Illusionary Happiness

Flavia Laviosa  (Wellesley College, USA)  “‘Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate’ in ThyssenKrupp”: Pietro Balla and Monica Repetto’s ThyssenKrupp Blues

Andrea Righi   (University of Puerto Rico, MAYAGUEZ):  Filming Capitalist Accumulation in Italy. In fabbrica (2007) and I Like to Work (Mobbing) (2004) by Francesca Comencini                                             

6.10-6.20:  Closing Remarks

7.00:  Aperitivo

10.30–10.50:  Start of proceedings: Welcome by Prof. Graham Tulloch, Dean of School of Humanities, Flinders University Introduction: William Hope (University of Salford): A New Italian Political Cinema? Global Perspectives (in English)

10.50 – 11.30: Session One: Susanna Scarparo (Monash University) & Bernadette Luciano (University of Auckland): Reframing Italy: The New Wave of Italian Women Filmmakers (in English)

11.30-11.50: Refreshments 1

1.50–12.50: Session Two: Conversation with the writer/director Filippo Ticozzi • Filippo Ticozzi: Il mio lavoro (in Italian – interpreting available, if needed) • Screening of Dall’altra parte della strada (2010, 30 mins., Italian with English subtitles) • Q&As in Italian and/or English (interpreting provided)

12.50-1.50: Lunch

1.50–2.50: Session Three: • Piera Carroli (ANU): Roberta Torre’s Mare nero: 21st Century’s Politics of the Body – Back to Mannequins? (in Italian) • Luciana d’Arcangeli (Flinders University): Donne di Mafia cambiano (in Italian) • Stefano Bona (Flinders University): La stella che non c’e’ by Gianni Amelio – Italy, globalisation and the re-discovery of different cultures (in Italian)

2.50-3.10: Refreshments 3.10–4.10:

Session Four: • William Hope (The University of Salford): Sabina Guzzanti – Political Opposition Through Cinematic Expression (in English) • Lara Palombo (Macquarie University): Framing Diasporic and Transnational Women’s Lives: Entering in a dialogue with Fistful of Flies, Looking for Alibrandi and La Spagnola (in English) • Sally Hill (Victoria University of Wellington): Images of Disability in Contemporary Italian Cinema (in English)

4.10-4.20: Closing Remarks

http://www.languages.salford.ac.uk/italianpoliticalcinema/london.php

 The next workshop in the series takes place in Adelaide on April 29th, and places are still available for this event, which will be combined with a one day conference on modern Italian cinema.

A New Italian Political Cinema?    

London Programme, November 27th. 

Venue: Lock-Keeper’s Graduate Centre, Mile End Campus, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK 

9.30-10.00: Registration

10.00-11.20:  Introduction:  William Hope (University of Salford):  A New Italian Political Cinema? Emerging Themes 

Session One:  Filmic Representations of Racial and Economic Marginalization

Introductory remarks:  Michele Rizzi  (Partito di Alternativa Comunista)

Shelleen Greene (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee): Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa – Towards a New History of Migration and Modernity – Haile Gerima’s Adwa: An African Victory and Isaac Julien’s Western Union: Small Boats

Lucia Ndongala (University of Salford): The New Italians and Questions of Identity: Cristina Comencini’s Bianco e nero

Dom Holdaway (University of Warwick): Observations on the Rhetoric of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra

Discussion

11.20-11.45:  Refreshments

11.45-1.15:  Session Two:  The Creation, Diffusion and Reception of Italian Political Cinema

Introductory remarks:  Mary Wood (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Sequence from Lettere dal Guatemala by Filippo Ticozzi

Filippo Ticozzi:  The Problems of Making Political Cinema in Italy

Lanfranco Aceti (Sabanci University, Istanbul) and Mick Grierson (Goldsmiths, University of London): Interactive Italian Political Cinema: Algorythmic Cinema and Participatory Narrative

Alan O’Leary (University of Leeds): Political fandom: the audience as constituency

Discussion 

1.15-2.00: Lunch

2.00-3.35:  Session Three:  Italy’s Socio-Political Past Revisited on Screen

Introductory remarks:  Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Queen Mary, University of London)

Elena Caoduro (University of Southampton): The canonisation of an inconvenient memory: Representations of the anni di piombo in La meglio gioventù (Marco Tullio Giordana) and Mio fratello è figlio unico (Daniele Lucchetti)

Kyle Hall (Harvard University): Visible Ironies and Invisible Writing in Sorrentino’s Il divo

Catherine O’Rawe (University of Bristol): La prima linea (De Maria), Il grande sogno (Placido) and Romanzo criminale (Placido): a poetics of middlebrow impegno

Erminia Passannanti (Brunel University): Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere: Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. Two Competing Forms of Dictatorship

Mariana Liz  (King’s College, London): Nostalgia, Memory and History in Buongiorno, Notte  by Marco Bellocchio

Discussion

3.35-4.00:  Refreshments

4.00-5.20: Session Four:  Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Italian Cinema

Introductory remarks:  Luciana d’Arcangeli (Flinders University, Adelaide)

Danielle Hipkins (University of Exeter):  Dirty Pretty Things: ‘Velinocrazia’ and female address with reference to Virzì’s Tutta la vita davanti

Mattia Marino  (University of Bangor):  Gender, sexuality and others in La sconosciuta (Giuseppe Tornatore) and Saturno contro (Ferzan Ozpetek)

Patrizia Muscogiuri (University of Salford): Alterity, gender and subalternity in Emanuele Crialese’s Respiro and Alessandro D’Alatri’s Sul mare 

Rebecca Bauman (Columbia University): Maria Sole Tognazzi’s L’uomo che ama; the inetto in domestic melodrama.

Discussion

5.20-5.30:  Closing Remarks

Workshop Presentations

These should be in English, last a maximum of 10 minutes, and raise questions for further discussion. Participants are very welcome to prepare further material for analysis during the discussion periods at the end of each workshop session, but you are asked to respect the duration of the initial presentations; the 10 minute limit will be strictly adhered to.

The workshop location will be fully equipped in audiovisual terms. If participants wish to use a brief Powerpoint presentation, please send a definitive copy of it to William Hope (W.Hope@salford.ac.uk) by November 17^th so that it can be checked for technical compatibility with the equipment likely to be used.  Given the brief duration of workshop presentations, we would prefer participants to use Powerpoint presentations featuring still images/frame grabs from films – or overhead transparencies – rather than to try and set up/show DVD sequences.

_______________________________________________________________________________________ 

The London workshop takes place on November 27th; there has been an excellent response to the call for presentations and the line-up of speakers is currently complete.  The line-up of speakers is also currently complete for Cremona next July. However, there are several places available for the Adelaide workshop in April. 

For the London workshop, it has been confirmed that there will be sessions on the following themes (for the Cremona workshop, please see the “Cremona Workshop Themes” page in the right hand column of the blog):

1. Italy’s socio-political past revisited on screen
2. The racial, social and economic marginalization of the individual
3. Gender and sexuality in contemporary Italian cinema
4. The creation, diffusion and reception of Italian political cinema 

Although there are currently no places left for colleagues interested in giving a presentation at the Cremona workshop, the possibility of late withdrawals cannot be discounted. Therefore, anyone wishing to register their interest in being placed on a reserve list with a view to speaking at the Cremona event in the case of a withdrawal is asked to contact William Hope (W.Hope@salford.ac.uk).

Confirmed participants for London now include:  Prof. Mary Wood, author of the volumes Contemporary European Cinema (Arnold, 2007) and Italian Cinema (Berg, 2005); Mafunda Lucia Ndongala, a researcher who has interviewed Italians of Congolese origin on their problematic integration in Turin; Michele Rizzi, a member of the Central Committee of the Partito di Alternativa Comunista who contested the recent presidential elections in the Puglia region; the film director Filippo Ticozzi; and Prof. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, author of the volumes Making Waves: New Cinemas of the 1960s (New York and London: Continuum, 2008) and Luchino Visconti (London: British Film Institute, 2003).

The workshop will take place at Queen Mary, University of London at their Mile End Campus, and will be an all day event.

http://www.qmul.ac.uk/about/howtofindus/index.html

For participants requiring accommodation, we suggest the following hotels:

Tavistock Hotel in Russell Square:  http://www.tavistock-hotel.co.uk/    This is a reasonably priced hotel (for London…), fairly central, and is a short trip from Queen Mary via underground train. The other nearby hotels owned by the same group (see web link above) are additional options.

Holiday Inn, Limehouse: http://www.exhi-limehouse.co.uk/   This is more expensive but is within walking distance of Queen Mary.

There are other options available that are cheaper than these hotels, and details of them can be given to participants if they wish; however, we don’t feel that we can honestly recommend very much of London’s low budget accommodation.

Further information about the event will follow in due course, including the possibility of an informal gathering/drink either the night before or after the event.

All the workshop places for London and Cremona have now been assigned.

A New Italian Political Cinema? is a project supported by an award made by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Research Networking Scheme (www.ahrc.ac.uk).  It is co-ordinated by the University of Salford, GB, with assistance from: Queen Mary, University of London; Flinders University, Australia; Middlesex University, GB; Sabanci University, Turkey; and the Partito di Alternativa Comunista (PdAC), Italy: www.alternativacomunista.it

The initial phase of the project will focus on the organization of workshops in London (November 27th, 2010), Adelaide, Australia (April 29th, 2011) and Cremona, Italy (July 9th, 2011) and on the construction of a dedicated website – online from November 2010 – to house workshop presentations and other material. The second phase of the project will feature a conference in Manchester, GB (January 2012) and the publication of volumes of working papers, a collection of essays, and a monograph.

PROJECT REMIT

In new millennium Italian cinema, political and socio-economic realities underpin many films. The phenomenon of workplace fatalities has been depicted in Mimmo Calopresti’s La fabbrica dei tedeschi (2008) and the marginalization of trade unions and exploitation of workers in Paolo Virzì’s Tutta la vita davanti (2008). Italian state brutality during the G8 protests in Genoa forms the basis of Francesca Comencini’s documentary Carlo Giuliani, ragazzo (2002). The role of political corruption and organized crime in causing environmental disasters has been explored in Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra (2008). The vulnerability of immigrants in Italy has been highlighted in films such as Marco Tullio Giordana’s Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti (2005) and Giuseppe Tornatore’s La sconosciuta (2006).  Marco Bellocchio’s Buongiorno notte (2003) and Guido Chiesa’s Lavorare con lentezza (2004) are indicative of a cinematic tendency to revisit Italy’s troubled political past. At a macro level, the corrupt, repressive nature of Silvio Berlusconi’s administrations has been analysed in Nanni Moretti’s Il caimano (2006). Italian cinema has also vividly represented the global effects of capitalism in films such as Gianni Amelio’s La stella che non c’è (2006).

Media distortions and untruths have influenced public perceptions of Italy’s socio-economic realities, creating a contradiction with the stark representations of the country’s problems sometimes found in contemporary Italian cinema. However, many film directors are also culpable of sidelining the sources of macro-level social conflict initially highlighted in films, with storylines often narrowing towards personalized solutions for individual characters and towards structured, genre-specific denouements. This leaves them susceptible to the accusation that certain forms of art continue to use symbolic, personalized solutions to smooth over profound social antagonisms.

A New Italian Political Cinema? is a cross-disciplinary project to examine the nature of the politicization of Italian cinema in the 21st century, to establish patterns within filmic representations of socio-economic and political issues in Italy and – by implication – in other Western European countries, and also to identify the factors affecting the attempts of film-makers to explore societal problems in their work.

While some scholars have published essays on cinematic representations of specific socio-economic issues,  so far no research programme has systematically analysed this phenomenon. A New Italian Political Cinema? is based on interaction between scholars and professionals working outside academia in fields – such as trade unionism and immigrant welfare – that are directly linked to the issues portrayed in Italian films. The network will combine the expertise of cinema scholars, directors, representatives of the political party Partito di Alternativa Comunista (PdAC), and members of Italy’s immigrant communities, trade unions, and environmental groups. Its rationale is to create a uniquely interactive forum – based on workshops, screenings of documentaries commissioned by the PdAC, a conference, and a website – for a genuinely interdisciplinary range of academics, professionals, and political activists to exchange ideas.

The research project will benefit scholars across the discipline of film studies by identifying patterns in the representation of social, economic and political issues on screen and analysing the factors that facilitate or obstruct the production of film projects that could be classed as ‘radical’. The testimonies of individuals such as members of Italy’s immigrant communities, trade unionists, and political activists during the workshops and conference will give the project’s publications a solid, empirical basis.

A New Italian Political Cinema? will also be relevant to scholars in areas such as politics and media studies, in terms of identifying the nature and frequency with which socio-economic and political questions are articulated within the mainstream medium of Italian cinema, and ascertaining how government policy and influence can impact upon such projects (e.g. via the attribution/withholding of state subsidies, the concession/withholding of finance via public/private television film broadcasting rights). The research will constitute a theoretical advance by linking film studies to tangible, empirical socio-economic and political evidence.

The results of the research project will be disseminated via a dedicated website and via three publication outlets, in order to maximize linguistic access to the research findings:

a) the established University of Salford Working Papers series (refereed publications with individual ISBN numbers) containing conference papers and workshop presentations.

b) a published volume of selected essays in Italian

c) a monograph in English

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• Explore the growing significance and implications of cinematic representations of political and socio-economic problems in Italy through academic, interdisciplinary and practical perspectives;
• Evaluate the differences between filmic representations of Italy’s political and socio-economic problems and the testimonies of the research network’s professional participants. Are directors’ depictions of society merely motivated by a desire for fresh appearance forms and stark local colour, or by a radical impulse for change?
• Inaugurate a critical approach towards film scholarship that is based on empirical personal testimony and statistical data, as well as on theoretical argument;
• Revisit the writings of Terry Eagleton and Fredric Jameson and consider whether Italian cinema is a locus where the ideological and political hegemony of dominant socio-economic groups is realistically depicted and challenged. Conversely, have films from the past twenty years merely produced imaginary narrative resolutions to the social antagonisms that they portray?
• Investigate the factors that condition the production and diffusion of radical films in Italy and evaluate their impact on film-makers;
• Establish criteria for the successful creation of radical film-making and for a more sensitized critical reception of politicized film-making;
• Enable young researchers and professionals outside academia to participate in Film Studies and shape its future;
• Foster new perspectives through interdisciplinary, practical, and international collaboration.

The co-ordinator of A New Italian Political Cinema? is Dr William Hope (Salford). He can be contacted at: W.Hope@salford.ac.uk

The timeframe covered by the project is Italian cinema from the early 1990s to the present day, with a particular emphasis on new millennium films. Workshop participants are invited to prepare a brief, ten minute presentation on one or two key films from this period, a presentation that will form the basis for group discussion. Indicative topics for discussion include (but are by no means limited to):

The commodification and privatization of Italy’s landscapes and resources as depicted on screen

Cinematic representations of economic migrants and asylum seekers in Italy

Cinema and the workplace; capital, labour, precariato, workplace fatalities

Filmic representations of institutional oppression and/or political extremism in Italy

Italy’s political past revisited on screen

Cinematic representations of socio-economic alienation and marginalization

Screen explorations of gender and sexuality

New age antiheroes; film characters as embodiments of capitalist values

Italian cinematic perspectives regarding the effects of capitalism in an international context

The depoliticization of Italian cinema and society

The production and distribution difficulties facing “political” film-makers

Interested parties should contact the project co-ordinator, William Hope (W.Hope@salford.ac.uk), with the following information, which will then be circulated to other institutions involved in organizing the project:

Name:

Institution (and position)/Profession:

Email contact address:

Preferred Workshop: If you are available to attend more than one workshop, then please add “1^st choice” and “2^nd choice” next to the appropriate venue below. The organizers would welcome such flexibility where possible, as it will assist them in theming particular workshops.

London (27/11/2010)

Adelaide (29/04/2011)

Cremona (09/07/2011)

Workshop presentation

Film(s)/director to be discussed:

Brief theoretical orientation of presentation (150 words max.):

Please copy and paste the above information into an email and send it to:   W.Hope@salford.ac.uk